Electronic messages or “e-mail” can be communicated in a variety of different ways to and from different computing devices. In general, an e-mail includes a sender address and one or more recipient addresses as well as a message. Some e-mails can also include an attached computer-readable file. Some e-mail computer programs designate fields, such as, “to” fields, “cc” fields, or “bcc” fields in which the sender can include one or more recipient addresses.
One difficulty for people communicating with e-mail is that, in general, e-mail can only be accessed at the address to which it is sent. Such an e-mail address can often only be accessed from a desktop computer connected to a communication network, such as a local area network (LAN) or the Internet, or a laptop computer accessing a network in some fashion. Some people attempt to solve the problem of increased access to e-mail using e-mail forwarding. E-mail forwarding allows a person to configure their e-mail system to forward some or all e-mails to a different address, location, or device.
While e-mail forwarding provides some flexibility for e-mail users, there are still disadvantages. One of the disadvantages to e-mail forwarding is particularly apparent when the e-mail is forwarded to another computer or device, such as a handheld computing device, having a different address. Once the e-mail is forwarded to a device having a different address, a reply e-mail from the device having a different address includes the different address. Multiple addresses from the same sender can confuse an e-mail recipient to whom e-mails are sent, making it difficult to know what address is the correct one. Further, multiple addresses can make the organization of e-mails (both sent and received) very cumbersome.
Some of the drawbacks of e-mail forwarding are resolved by the use of redirector programs. For example, the INFOWAVE EXCHANGE CONNECTOR computer software program sold by INFOWAVE SOFTWARE of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, includes an e-mail redirector that “re-directs” or communicates e-mails sent to one e-mail address to another device without adversely affecting the e-mail addresses (e.g., to or from addresses). Redirector programs enable the communication of return e-mails from the remote device in a manner that the final recipient is unaware that messages are redirected to a different device. That is, the sending e-mail address is the same whether the e-mail is sent from a remote device through a redirector program on a computer or the e-mail is sent directly from the computer.
In both e-mail forwarding and e-mail redirection systems, the user can establish rules naming addresses that should be forwarded (or redirected) and rules naming addresses that should not be forwarded (or redirected). Nevertheless, conventional systems require that the user must enter these various forwarding or blocking rules. As such, it is possible, using conventional e-mail forwarding or redirection systems, for a user to send an e-mail to a recipient but not be able to receive the recipient's response because the user has not taken the time and effort to create a forwarding rule including that recipient.
By way of another example, a user sending an e-mail from a personal digital assistant (PDA) using a conventional redirection program must return to the redirector program located on another computer and establish a forwarding rule or change a blocking rule to ensure receipt of a return e-mail.
Thus, there is a need to automatically add e-mail forwarding rules. Further, there is a need to ensure that replies to messages sent to a recipient will be received by the sender because the recipient addresses are automatically added to the sender's forwarding rules. Even further, there is a need for ensuring that subsequent replies from any person or group a user sends a message to will be received.
The teachings hereinbelow extend to those embodiments which fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the above-mentioned needs.